Every month the members of the KPCT Clicker Community get this letter from me, about whatever training thought or event is currently uppermost on my mind.
Every month you also get a 'What's News' letter about what's new on our website, www.clickertraining.com. The newsletter, gathered and written by company President Aaron Clayton and company Wizard Greg Parsons always includes new articles or stories about clicker training. This month we featured a story about clicker training in prison, and a lesson on making a training plan, from llama genius Jim Logan. If you're not in the habit of checking out the new web 'content' every month, let me urge you to begin now-with the awesome story of a clicker trained leopard in the Namibian Desert.
New content moves off the front page into various areas of the website: Articles, gem posts, etc. Some continuing stories have pages of their own: the Phoebe Chronicles, month by month articles about editor Gale Pryor's experiences with a very bright, intense, beautiful border collie pup, bred by Kay Laurence in England, hand-carried to Massachusetts, and growing up in suburbia, a long way from sheep. My letters are stacked consecutively at Letters from Karen.
But if you want a thrilling read, sit down with the Honor Roll. Here clicker trainers tell us about the proudest accomplishments of their clicker pets. Just scroll down. The range is huge. A FEMA disaster dog, 100% clicker trained, that performed brilliantly in the flames of the burning Pentagon building on 9/11. Dogs ranging from collies to terrier mixes, on death row for human and dog aggression, rescued, clicker trained, winning CDXs, working as therapy dogs in nursing homes. One trainer practiced clicking with her child's pet bantam chicken. A year later, the chicken still flies to her wrist on cue.
The Honor Roll features lots of competition wins. It's a good place to send those friends who say "Yes BUT…no one ever got an OTCh with a clicker dog.." or "No one ever trained a Schutzhund dog (or field trial champion…)" Yes they did. Look at the Honor Roll.
"Clicker training takes too long" is another favorite complaint. But it's commonplace for serious competitors to take a year or more to get their dog to its first placements. Taking a glance at the Honor Roll I saw show dogs that got their championships in three shows, Obedience titles earned in three straight trials with wins and HIT's (High in Trial) all the way…and with breeds such as Bassetts, boxers, and border terriers. (I happened to open the Honor Roll in the B's: it's alphabetical.) Got a pet you're proud of? Put it on the Honor Roll!
We are off to ClickerExpo West, in Berkeley, California, tomorrow. I'm so excited! I guess we all are. We have nearly 300 registrants, and some great new faculty in addition to many of the Chicago presenters. Helix Fairweather, on clicker agility. Kay Laurence, from England. Gary Priest, San Diego zoo curator of behavior and perhaps the person most responsible for kicking loose the zoo world's mindset and bringing humane clicker husbandry and enrichment techniques to all those many species.
Gale Pryor will be running the Clicker Challenge and co-teaching two sessions (no, she is NOT bringing Phoebe). Our sponsors will be there in force, and we are so glad to have them, since each of them a.)support the clicker philosophy and b) produce a product we all use.
Bravo Raw Diet. I really love this and buy a two-month's supply at a time for my little city dogs, because they don't have any more stomach problems, they LOVE it, it stays fresh in its airtight tubes, and there's lots of variety. Kong's new Training Opportunity Treats are great coat-pocket clicker adjuncts for those times when my old terrier Twitchett feels like launching a pre-emptive strike against some passing Maltese terrier (which upsets that owner) or some passing Rotweiller (which upsets me).
We are also featuring at the show (and now on our website) colorful and super lightweight anodized aluminum agility equipment, and we'll use it in the Clicker Challenge and in some other sessions. It's so easy to set up and it comes in these really good-looking carrier bags-I could fit three hurdles, a tunnel, a chute, and weave poles in my hall closet and still have room for the astonishing variety of coats and jackets the Boston climate demands, plus two weeks worth of recycle newspapers.
But I digress.
One thing I'm looking forward to at Berkeley is the session I'm teaching on Clicking with Critters, i.e. small pets other than dogs. From what my e-mail tells me, people are bringing-and will be ready to show off behaviors with-clicker trained cats, clicker trained rabbits, and clicker-trained 'companion birds.' Yippee! We'll be video-taping. All these small animals are susceptible to clicker training. Just like all us large animals.
Film at 11:00. More realistically, after I get back. I will take a few days after Berkeley to visit my son Mike, the middle of my three kids, and my daughter-in-law and two little girls, in Bakersfield, CA. Mike flies planes for an oil company and Eileen teaches second grade. They are so serene and affectionate and funny it is a blessing to be with them. Clicker principles RULE.
Karen Pryor is the founder and CEO of Karen Pryor Clicker Training and Karen Pryor Academy. She is the author of many books, including Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind. Learn more about Karen Pryor or read Karen's Letters online.
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